Making Texas Safe for the Hearing Protection Act

Governor Abbot has signed HB 1819 into law on May 26th, 2017. The law goes into effect on 1 September. The law makes Texas safe for silencer ownership if/when the Hearing Protection Act (HPA) is passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump.  This is important because the Texas legislature only meets every two years.

The law removes silencers from the list of devices that are required to be on the BATF registry for NFA items, only requiring that people who own, manufacturer, transport, repair, or sell silencers in Texas be in compliance with federal law. From state.tx.us:

(a)  A person commits an offense if the person intentionally

	or knowingly possesses, manufactures, transports, repairs, or
	sells:
	(1)  any of the following items, unless the item is
	registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer
	Record maintained by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
	Explosives or classified as a curio or relic by the United States
	Department of Justice:
	(A)  an explosive weapon;
	(B)  a machine gun; or
	(C)  a short-barrel firearm; [or
	[(D)  a firearm silencer;]
	(2)  knuckles;
	(3)  armor-piercing ammunition;
	(4)  a chemical dispensing device;
	(5)  a zip gun; [or]
	(6)  a tire deflation device; or
	(7)  a firearm silencer, unless the firearm silencer is
	classified as a curio or relic by the United States Department of
	Justice or the actor otherwise possesses, manufactures,
	transports, repairs, or sells the firearm silencer in compliance
	with federal law.
	(e)  An offense under Subsection (a)(1), (3), (4), [or] (5),
	or (7) is a felony of the third degree.  An offense under Subsection
	(a)(6) is a state jail felony.  An offense under Subsection (a)(2)
	is a Class A misdemeanor.

The definitions of the above items are already defined in Texas law, so there are no changes there. For example, armor-piercing ammunition only applies to pistol ammunition.

Some legislators in Texas are taking the passage of the HPA as a serious possibility.

Update: The final version of the bill adds a change to (1) so that any items that are not federally required to be on the National Registration and Transfer Record will be legal under Texas Law.  With that change, firearms such as the Mossberg Shockwave would be legal in Texas.


©2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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